Tuesday, August 4, 2009

ETA —and anti-Euskarism— strike again

We have already talked about anti-Euskarism, the irrational hatred of Basques. Last week's events prove that, at least in my country, anti-Euskarism is alive and well. Look at the cover of La Nación, one of Buenos Aires' leading dailies, from July 31:


As you can see, the most prominent headline on the cover reads, "Horror in Spain over new ETA strike." From the space devoted to the incident, you would think that hundreds of innocent civilians died in the Basque guerrilla's attack.

Actually, two armed Spanish policemen were killed in the bombing. Now while one condemns all forms of violence, it must also be said that this ETA attack pales beside other far more horrific violent actions that take place every day around the world.

Consider, for instance, the case of Egypt. On the same day in which La Nación found it fitting to report Basque, and only Basque, violence, around 4,000 Egyptian girls were victims of Female Genital Mutilation. Not only were these girls deprived of sexual pleasure forever, but some 1% of them will die due to infection caught during the procedure. Yet despite this slow holocaust inflicted on women for the sole crime of having the wrong gender, La Nación chose not to say anything about it on July 31.

Or, for example, Algeria. On July 30, 20 soldiers were killed and 7 wounded in a terror attack in the northeast of the country. That's ten times as many victims as in ETA's strike on the same day. La Nación's coverage? None at all. It looks like there's no need to report terrorism when Basques can't be blamed for it.

Lest anyone argue that we are only concerned with Islamic violence, let's turn to Christian terror. On Christmas of 2008, the Lord's Resistance Army, a Christian terrorist group in Africa, killed 45 people in a Congo church. You would search La Nación in vain for a single mention of the massacre.

In its inner pages, the daily devotes two lengthy articles to discussing ETA's irrationality. And it's not alone in its anti-Euskarism: today's Clarín (the other leading Buenos Aires newspaper) runs an editorial urging the Basques to drop the use of violence to achieve their national aspirations. Of course, the daily doesn't offer any alternative or explain how else the Basques could fight Spanish oppression of their country if a referendum on independence is constitutionally prohibited. And it definitely does not run an editorial scolding the Algerian terrorists.

In case someone hasn't gotten my point (and I know many a conceited Zionist who's too busy defending the indefensible to understand irony and grasp double sense):

It's not about Israel.

It's not about the Jews.

It's about Countries & Conflicts That People Know About.

Get over it.

3 comments:

  1. Haha fun post! As we say here in Vitoria, "Palestina, askatu" as well as "Gora Euskadi!" :)

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  2. So wait.. it's not about Israel.. but it's about "countries..."

    Interesting..

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  3. You're spot on about the unfairness of coverage. Violence in Europe and the US, like "Barcelona" wisely pointed out, is more news-worthy than violence in the Third World, where people are expected to kill themselves constantly and the Media does not quite care.

    You are, however, implying two things:
    1) Most Basques want to separete their region from Spain.
    2) Most Basques approve of ETA's methods and beliefs.

    While the first point might be true, although we won't know (that constitutional ban on the referendum standing), I'm pretty sure ETA's support in Euskadi is far from soaring. Then again, I have no hard data here, so I could be wrong.

    Still, can you justify what you're implying? I'd love to know more.

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